Category: EU

An influential British think tank and Ukraine’s military are disputing a report that the U.S. cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has used to buttress its claims of Russian hacking in the presidential election.

The CrowdStrike report, released in December, asserted that Russians hacked into a Ukrainian artillery app, resulting in heavy losses of howitzers in Ukraine’s war with Russian-backed separatists.

But the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) told VOA that CrowdStrike erroneously used IISS data as proof of the intrusion. IISS disavowed any connection to the CrowdStrike report. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense also has claimed combat losses and hacking never happened.

The challenges to CrowdStrike’s credibility are significant because the firm was the first to link last year’s hacks of Democratic Party computers to Russian actors, and because CrowdStrike co-founder Dimiti Alperovitch has trumpeted its Ukraine report as more evidence of Russian election tampering.

Alperovitch has said that variants of the same software were used in both hacks.

While questions about CrowdStrike’s findings don’t disprove allegations of Russian involvement, they do add to skepticism voiced by some cybersecurity experts and commentators about the quality of their technical evidence.

The Russian government has denied covert involvement in the election, but U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian hacks were meant to discredit Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump’s campaign. An FBI and Homeland Security report also blamed Russian intelligence services.

On Monday, FBI Director James Comey confirmed at a House Intelligence Committee hearing that his agency has an ongoing investigation into the hacks of Democratic campaign computers and into contacts between Russian operatives and Trump campaign associates. The White House says there was no collusion with Russia, and other U.S. officials have said they’ve found no proof.

Signature malware

VOA News first reported in December that sources close to the Ukraine military and the artillery app’s creator questioned CrowdStrike’s finding that a Russian-linked group it named “Fancy Bear” had hacked the app. CrowdStrike said it found a variant of the same “X-Agent” malware used to attack the Democrats.

CrowdStrike said the hack allowed Ukraine’s enemies to locate its artillery units. As proof of its effectiveness, the report referenced publicly reported data in which IISS had sharply reduced its estimates of Ukrainian artillery assets. IISS, based in London, publishes a highly regarded, annual reference called “The Military Balance” that estimates the strength of world armed forces.

“Between July and August 2014, Russian-backed forces launched some of the most-decisive attacks against Ukrainian forces, resulting in significant loss of life, weaponry and territory,” CrowdStrike wrote in its report, explaining that the hack compromised an app used to aim Soviet-era D-30 howitzers.

“Ukrainian artillery forces have lost over 50% of their weapons in the two years of conflict and over 80% of D-30 howitzers, the highest percentage of loss of any other artillery pieces in Ukraine’s arsenal,” the report said, crediting a Russian blogger who had cited figures from IISS.

The report prompted skepticism in Ukraine.

Yaroslav Sherstyuk, maker of the Ukrainian military app in question, called the company’s report “delusional” in a Facebook post. CrowdStrike never contacted him before or after its report was published, he told VOA.

Pavlo Narozhnyy, a technical adviser to Ukraine’s military, told VOA that while it was theoretically possible the howitzer app could have been compromised, any infection would have been spotted. “I personally know hundreds of gunmen in the war zone,” Narozhnyy told VOA in December. “None of them told me of D-30 losses caused by hacking or any other reason.”

VOA first contacted IISS in February to verify the alleged artillery losses. Officials there initially were unaware of the CrowdStrike assertions. After investigating, they determined that CrowdStrike misinterpreted their data and hadn’t reached out beforehand for comment or clarification.

In a statement to VOA, the institute flatly rejected the assertion of artillery combat losses.

“The CrowdStrike report uses our data, but the inferences and analysis drawn from that data belong solely to the report’s authors,” the IISS said. “The inference they make that reductions in Ukrainian D-30 artillery holdings between 2013 and 2016 were primarily the result of combat losses is not a conclusion that we have ever suggested ourselves, nor one we believe to be accurate.”

Erica Ma, operations administrator with IISS in the U.S., said that while the think tank had dramatically lowered its estimates of Ukrainian artillery assets and howitzers in 2013, it did so as part of a “reassessment” and reallocation of units to airborne forces.

“No, we have never attributed this reduction to combat losses,” Ma said, explaining that most of the reallocation occurred prior to the two-year period that CrowdStrike cites in its report.

“The vast majority of the reduction actually occurs … before Crimea/Donbass,” she added, referring to the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

‘Evidence flimsy’

In early January, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense issued a statement saying artillery losses from the ongoing fighting with separatists are “several times smaller than the number reported by [CrowdStrike] and are not associated with the specified cause” of Russian hacking.

But Ukraine’s denial did not get the same attention as CrowdStrike’s report. Its release was widely covered by news media reports as further evidence of Russian hacking in the U.S. election.

In interviews, Alperovitch helped foster that impression by connecting the Ukraine and Democratic campaign hacks, which CrowdStrike said involved the same Russian-linked hacking group—Fancy Bear—and versions of X-Agent malware the group was known to use.

“The fact that they would be tracking and helping the Russian military kill Ukrainian army personnel in eastern Ukraine and also intervening in the U.S. election is quite chilling,” Alperovitch said in a December 22 story by The Washington Post.

The same day, Alperovitch told the PBS NewsHour: “And when you think about, well, who would be interested in targeting Ukraine artillerymen in eastern Ukraine? Who has interest in hacking the Democratic Party? [The] Russia government comes to mind, but specifically, [it’s the] Russian military that would have operational [control] over forces in the Ukraine and would target these artillerymen.”

Alperovitch, a Russian expatriate and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council policy research center in Washington, co-founded CrowdStrike in 2011. The firm has employed two former FBI heavyweights: Shawn Henry, who oversaw global cyber investigations at the agency, and Steven Chabinsky, who was the agency’s top cyber lawyer and served on a White House cybersecurity commission. Chabinsky left CrowdStrike last year.

CrowdStrike declined to answer VOA’s written questions about the Ukraine report, and Alperovitch canceled a March 15 interview on the topic. In a December statement to VOA’s Ukrainian Service, spokeswoman Ilina Dimitrova defended the company’s conclusions.

“It is indisputable that the [Ukraine artillery] app has been hacked by Fancy Bear malware,” Dimitrova wrote. “We have published the indicators to it, and they have been confirmed by others in the cybersecurity community.”

In its report last June attributing the Democratic hacks, CrowdStrike said it was long familiar with the methods used by Fancy Bear and another group with ties to Russian intelligence nicknamed Cozy Bear. Soon after, U.S. cybersecurity firms Fidelis and Mandiant endorsed CrowdStrike’s conclusions. The FBI and Homeland Security report reached the same conclusion about the two groups.

Still, some cybersecurity experts are skeptical that the election and purported Ukraine hacks are connected. Among them is Jeffrey Carr, a cyberwarfare consultant who has lectured at the U.S. Army War College, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and other government agencies.

In a January post on LinkedIn, Carr called CrowdStrike’s evidence in the Ukraine “flimsy.” He told VOA in an interview that CrowdStrike mistakenly assumed that the X-Agent malware employed in the hacks was a reliable fingerprint for Russian actors.

“We now know that’s false,” he said, “and that the source code has been obtained by others outside of Russia.”

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA’s Ukrainian Service.
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Turkish security forces carried out mass arrests of pro-Kurdish activists in the run-up to Tuesday’s Nowruz celebrations, which mark the start of the Kurdish new year.

Nearly 1,000 activists have been arrested in a week-long nationwide sweep by Turkish security forces.

Authorities say the detentions are aimed at preventing possible attacks by the PKK Kurdish insurgent group, which has been fighting the Turkish state for greater minority rights. Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist organization.

Critics argue the crackdown has little to do with fighting terrorism. “All of those who have been arrested are local HDP activists,” said Ertugrul Kurkcu, parliamentary deputy of the pro-Kurdish party.

“The government wants to keep the Kurdish masses out of squares and streets and out of the political context,” he argued. “It’s obvious the Nowruz celebration is an opportunity for a political awakening and the horizon of Nowruz this year is the referendum.”

Turkey will hold a referendum next month on giving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sweeping powers, and the HDP is in the forefront of campaigning against that vote.

Security concerns have also been cited for banning Nowruz celebrations in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, and Istanbul, which is home to the world’s largest Kurdish population. Permission has been granted for celebrations in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Nowruz is widely acknowledged as the most important event of the year for Kurdish cultural identity. For decades, it was banned in Turkey.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, in a report released Monday, highlighted what it described as an alarming crackdown on pro-Kurdish groups in Turkey.

“It’s deeply damaging to Turkey’s democracy that the government is locking up the leaders and MPs of an opposition party that received five million votes in the last election,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The fact that the curbs come during a vital national debate about the country’s future is doubly disturbing.”

“We have not seen anything on this scale for many, many years,” said Emma Sinclair Webb, chief Turkey researcher for Human Rights Watch. She said  the timing and scale of the arrests, which includes 13 HDP members of parliament, are of concern.

“In the run-up to the referendum, there is a huge crackdown on Kurds in Turkey and a crackdown on the second opposition party in Turkey’s parliament, which has a lot of its members in prison, including the leaders of the party,” said Webb.

Moreover, Webb said on the local government level, “you have got 82 municipalities basically brought under government control and co-mayors of those municipalities jailed. They’ve seen 5,000 of their party officials jailed as well. There is no coincidence in the timing of this crackdown; it’s entirely intended to frustrate the activities of a big parliamentary opposition party.”

The government refutes such allegations, arguing it is engaged only in fighting terrorism. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has promised no let up in the crackdown, despite concerns over the forthcoming referendum.

“The arrests and detentions are upsetting our regular [campaign] work creating a shortage of experienced and seasoned organizers and activists,” said parliamentary deputy Kurkcu.

Kurkcu said the “No” campaign is adapting, going in an “unsusal direction.”

“The campaign is not run by organizing [traditional] outdoor rallies,” he said, “but through door-to-door campaigning and this campaigning is conducted by everyone available. This doesn’t require political leadership, but political courage and political will.”

Most opinion polls predict the outcome of the referendum remains too close to call. Analysts point out the crackdown on pro-Kurdish groups also plays well with Turkish nationalist voters — key constituents in Erdogan’s bid to win the referendum — making any let-up in the wave of detentions unlikely.

“They really cannot step back from what they have done, what they’ve engaged in, because we do have a referendum and they cannot make any maneuver that would look like they are capitulating,”said Soli Ozel, an international relations expert at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University.
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The top candidates in France’s volatile presidential election go head-to-head in a televised debate Monday as polls show centrist Emmanuel Macron and far right leader Marine Le Pen pulling away from the pack five weeks before the first round.

Macron, Le Pen and the three other leading candidates will take part in a nearly three-hour debate on the main private channel starting at 9 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Monday expected to be watched by millions.

The televised debate, the first held before the first round of a French presidential election, may be crucial in helping viewers make up their minds.

Opinion polls show almost 40 percent of voters are not completely sure who to back in the election, being held over two rounds on April 23 and May 7 against a backdrop of high unemployment and sluggish growth.

Markets, surprised by Britain’s Brexit vote last June, are nervous about the possibility of a victory by National Front leader Le Pen, who pledges to take France out of the euro and hold a referendum on EU membership.

Polls show Macron and Le Pen establishing a clear lead in terms of voting intentions in the first round, while conservative candidate Francois Fillon, the one-time front-runner who has been damaged by a financial scandal, has slipped back.

An attack at Paris Orly airport on Saturday, when a man known to police as a radicalized Muslim was shot dead after trying to grab a soldier’s rifle, has put security back in the spotlight after a series of Islamic attacks shook France.

That could play into the hands of right-wing candidates Le Pen and Fillon, who advocate tougher security measures.

The latest daily Opinionway poll on Monday showed Le Pen scoring 27 percent in the first round, in front of Macron on 23 and Fillon on 18. Only the top two candidates go through to the runoff, when polls suggest Macron would easily beat Le Pen.

The premium that investors demand to hold French instead of German debt rose to its highest in almost two weeks Monday, reflecting unease among investors before the debate.

“We think the importance of this debate should not be underestimated. Only 60 percent of voters polled by Ifop say they have made up their mind,” said Mizuho rates strategist Antoine Bouvet.

Pollster Ifop’s data show more than 80 percent of Le Pen’s backers saying they would definitely vote for her in the first round. By contrast, less than 49 percent of Macron’s supporters were certain they would vote for him.

The other two candidates taking part in Monday evening’s debate are the ruling Socialist Party’s candidate Benoit Hamon and Jean-Luc Melenchon, who have split the left-wing vote.

Macron, 39, a former economy minister and investment banker who has never run for elected office, made a name for himself by criticizing sacred cows of the French “social model” such as the 35-hour working week, iron-clad job protection and civil servants’ jobs for life. Other candidates are likely to attack his relative inexperience.
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Syrian government representatives will attend upcoming peace talks in Geneva, Russia’s state RIA news agency reported on Monday, citing Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

Bogdanov said Moscow hoped that Syrian armed opposition would be able to attend the peace talks.

Bogdanov also said the United Nations’ Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, would visit Moscow ahead of the Geneva talks.

De Mistura is trying to mediate a political agreement between Syria’s warring sides, and after a procedural round of talks in Geneva ended on March 3, he plans to bring the negotiators back for in-depth discussions on March 23.
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Blood tests determined Sunday that a suspected Islamic extremist consumed drugs and alcohol before a frenzied spree of violence that ended when he took a soldier hostage at Paris’ Orly Airport and was shot dead by her fellow patrolmen.

The Paris prosecutors’ office said toxicology tests conducted as part of an autopsy found traces of cocaine and cannabis in the blood of the suspect, Ziyed Ben Belgacem.

He also had 0.93 grams of alcohol per liter of blood when he died Saturday, the prosecutors’ office said. That is nearly twice the legal limit for driving in France.

The 39-year-old Frenchman with a long criminal record of drugs and robbery offences stopped at a bar in the wee hours Saturday morning, around four hours before he first fired bird shot at traffic police. Then, 90 minutes later, he attacked the military patrol at Orly, causing panic and the shutdown of the French capital’s second-biggest airport.

Yelling that he wanted to kill and die for Allah, Belgacem wrestled away a soldier’s assault rifle but was shot to death by two other soldiers before he could fire the military-grade weapon in Orly’s busy South Terminal, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.

In an interview Sunday with French radio Europe 1, a man identified as the suspect’s father said Belgacem wasn’t a practicing Muslim and drank alcohol.

“My son was never a terrorist. He never attended prayer. He drank. But under the effects of alcohol and cannabis, this is where one ends up,” said the father. Europe 1 did not give his name.

The father was released from police custody overnight Saturday. Belgacem’s brother and a cousin were released later Sunday.

Belgacem called his father and brother early Saturday morning, minutes after he fired at a police traffic patrol, injuring an officer in the face, to say that he had made a stupid mistake, according to Molins, the prosecutor.

“He called me at seven, eight in the morning and said, ‘There you go, Papa.’ He was extremely angry, even his mother couldn’t understand him,” the man identified as the father said on Europe 1. “He told me: ‘I ask for your forgiveness. I’ve screwed up with a gendarme.'”

A subsequent police search of Belgacem’s flat found cocaine, Molins said.

Belgacem had been flagged as having been radicalized during a spell in detention in 2011-2012, Molins said. His house was among dozens searched in November 2015 in the immediate aftermath of suicide bomb-and-gun attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.

The Orly attack forced both of the airport’s terminals to shut down and evacuate, sent passengers and workers fleeing in panic and trapped hundreds of others aboard planes that had just landed.

According to the soldiers, the attacker yelled: “Put down your weapons! Put your hands on your head! I am here to die for Allah. Whatever happens, there will be deaths,” Molins said.

The drama, which caused no injuries except for the light wound to the traffic police officer, further rattled France, which remains under a state of emergency after attacks the past two years that have killed 235 people.

 
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President Donald Trump risks driving wedges between the United States and its closest allies, something America can ill-afford. So say lawmakers of both political parties as public disputes have arisen between the White House and Britain as well as Germany. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports from Washington.
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Tensions between Germany and Turkery are on the rise again, with the Turkish president accusing the German chancellor of using “Nazi” measures. The accusation follows a pro Kurdish rally in Germany Saturday that turned into a rally against the Turkish President.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, campaigning in a referendum to extend his presidential powers again, turned his fire on the German chancellor Angela Merkel. In a televised speech Sunday, Erdogan used Germany’s Nazi past against Merkel

“When we call them fascists, Nazis they in Europe get uncomfortable. They rally together in solidarity. Especially Merkel,” Erdogan said adding, “But you are right now employing Nazi measures,”

Erdogan was infuriated after two of his ministers earlier this month were prevented from addressing meetings in Germany for the Turkish diaspora, in support of a yes vote in April’s referendum. The meetings were cancelled by local authorities because of security concerns. But on Saturday tens of thousands of Kurds were allowed to attend a gathering in the German City of Frankfurt. The meeting ostensibly to mark Newroz, the Kurdish new year, turned into a rally against Erdogan and called for a “No” vote in the referendum.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusolgu in a statement accused Berlin of double standards, hypocrisy and supporting the” No” vote. Sunday, the German ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry to receive an official condemnation.

Adding to Ankara’s anger, many Kurds attending the Frankfurt rally carried pictures of the imprisoned leaderof the PKK Abdullah Ocalan. The PKK is fighting the Turkish State and is designated internationally as a terrorist organization..

Political columnist Semih Idiz of Al Monitor website says the Europe is becoming increasingly embroiled in Turkish politics.

“The vote in Europe is significant , there is nearly 5 million people across Europe who are Turkish. In Germany 1.4 million who are eligible to vote. So this a reflection of domestic politics overflowing into the foreign domain and creating a big mess,” said Idiz.

Observers say the importance of the diaspora vote which traditionally gives strong support to Erdogan is viewed as increasingly key given that opinion polls indicate the result is too close to call. Tensions with Berlin could ratcheted up further with an Erdogan spokesman saying Turkey is considering sending another minister to Germany to speak at a rally ahead of the April referendum.

 
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the meeting of finance ministers of the G20 countries was a success Saturday despite the ministers not reaching agreement on trade protectionism.

“I will leave here confident that my colleagues and I are able to work in partnership to …foster and promote global growth and financial stability,” he said.

Citing President Donald Trump’s commitment to American companies and workers, Mnuchin pushed back on and effectively omitted a ban on protectionism from the joint statement released at the end of the summit.

Mnuchin did, however, say that the United States still believed in free trade.

“We believe in free trade, we’re one of the largest markets in the world, we’re one of the largest trading partners in the world,” Mnuchin said. “Having said that, we want to re-examine certain agreements,” he continued, speaking specifically about NAFTA.

Other world powers present played down any disagreement between the countries.

“It’s not true we are not agreed. It’s completely clear we are not for protectionism,” Wolfgang Schaeuble, finance minister of host country Germany, told reporters, though he did, without mentioning a country by name, say that “maybe one or the other important member state needs to get a sense of how international cooperation works.”

The G20 is a informal forum on economic cooperation between 19 countries plus the European Union. Representatives from the 19 countries and the EU will meet for a formal summit in July.

 
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President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak by phone Saturday afternoon with the president of Brazil, a nation in which many favored Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over Trump – due in large part to his opposition to free global trade.

Nevertheless, Brazilian President Michel Temer sent a message to Trump shortly after his November election victory expressing confidence they could collaborate to strengthen relations between the countries.

Temer has said increasing trade with the U.S. and securing more U.S. investment are keys to lifting Brazil out of what he calls a “very violent” recession, its worst on record.

Trump is opposed to global trade deals, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the NAFTA pact with Mexico and Canada, and he has said he would seek to rework them to protect U.S. jobs.

Trump’s election has raised concerns in many Latin American countries due to his views on immigration, and his promise to expel undocumented U.S. residents and build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to stem the flow of illegals.

Temer, a pro-business centrist, became president in August after Dilma Rousseff was impeached in the midst of the brutal two-year recession. The Brazilian economy is showing signs of recovery, but Temer still grapples with transportation strikes and street demonstrations against proposed changes to work rules and pensions.

Trump’s conversation with the Brazilian president comes one day after he met at the White House with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In tweets Saturday morning from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump reiterated a call for Germany to make a larger financial contribution to support NATO.

During his weekly radio address Saturday, Trump reiterated plans to reverse an executive action from Barack Obama’s administration that was “threatening thousands of auto jobs in Michigan and across America.” This comes on the heels of his visit earlier this week to Willow Run auto plant in Michigan.

The president also said task forces are being established in every federal agency to identify “unnecessary regulation” that is hindering job creation.

Before his phone call with Temer, Trump will receive his daily briefing at Mar-a-Lago – his fifth weekend there since taking office.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that he expects parliament to move to allow capital punishment – a change that could officially end Turkey’s bid to join the European Union.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the anniversary of a World War I campaign, Erdogan focused on the current political climate rather than historical successes.

“The families of the martyrs, the heroes [those killed as a result of a failed July 15 coup attempt] don’t need to worry,” he said as quoted from the rally by the French Press Agency. “I believe, God willing, that after the April 16 vote parliament will do the what is needed concerning your demands for capital punishment.”

The EU has long said that reinstating capital punishment in Turkey, which was outlawed there in 2004, would be the end of Turkey’s decades-long bid to join the bloc.

Tensions with Europe already are high as Turkey prepares for the April 16 referendum, which would broaden president Erdogan’s powers. Turkish officials have been campaigning among emigre Turks in Germany and the Netherlands to promote the referendum. Many of the scheduled rallies were canceled by German and Dutch leaders, resulting in various spats – including Erdogan referring to the Netherlands as “Nazi remnants”.

In addition to damaging Turkey’s chances of joining the EU, the diplomatic crisis threatens a deal agreed upon by the two sides last year that is aimed at alleviating the refugee crisis in Europe.

The ceremony, at which Erdogan spoke, marked the anniversary of what the Turkish people call the Canakkale battle, one of the greatest Ottoman victories during World War I and a defining moment in Turkish history.

Saturday’s celebrations also featured the beginning of construction on what would be the world’s largest suspension bridge, as announced by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel shook hands warmly at the end of a sometimes awkward “getting-to-know-you” session Friday at the White House that seemed to symbolize the difficulties ahead for the trans-Atlantic relationship.

Trump and Merkel, considered the two most powerful leaders in the Western world, appeared to get off to a rocky start in their first face-to-face meeting. They notably did not shake hands as they sat for photographers in the Oval Office after their opening conversation. 

At a news conference later, however, following their two hours of talks, both leaders made more conciliatory statements.

“They were civil. It was workmanlike. They did not demonstrate any particular affinity, and one could sense there had been some significant differences of opinion in the meeting,” said Charles Kupchan, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

WATCH: Trump, Merkel Meet in Oval Office

Trump did not bring up the sharp criticisms of Merkel he issued when he was running for president last year, when he said the veteran chancellor’s policy of welcoming immigrants was “ruining” her country and much of Europe. And Merkel was gentle in her comments about the immigration controversies in the United States since Trump took over the White House.

The problems of “migration, immigration, integration have to be worked on, obviously,” Merkel said, adding: “But this has to be done while looking at the refugees as well, giving them opportunities to shape their own lives where they are. … I think that’s the right way of going about it. And this obviously is what we have an exchange of views about.” 

Trump, who once famously called NATO “obsolete,” reaffirmed his support for the alliance, and Merkel said she was “gratified” by that. He did not, however, back down from previous criticism of allies who he says are not accepting their fair share of the defense burden.

WATCH: NATO Members ‘Must Pay Fair Share,’ Trump Says

Trump’s NATO pledge welcomed

“I reiterated to Chancellor Merkel my strong support for NATO, as well as the need for our NATO allies to pay their fair share for the cost of defense,” the U.S. president said. “Many nations owe vast sums of money from past years, and it is very unfair to the United States. These nations must pay what they owe.”

Trump’s NATO endorsement will be especially welcome to European ears, according to Jeffrey Rathke, deputy director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “This is more than the president has ever said about NATO since being elected.  So today was a bit more than that, and that will help reassure our allies of the U.S. commitment.”

Trump also tried to ease concerns that he will move the United States toward protectionism, as he has been portrayed by many European media, but he repeated that he will seek better deals with trading partners.

“I don’t believe in an isolationist policy,” the president said. “But I also believe a policy of trade should be a fair policy. And the United States has been treated very, very unfairly by many countries over the years, and that’s going to stop.”

Merkel seeks ‘compromise … good for both’

Merkel struck a conciliatory tone, while not yielding on key German interests. “We tried to talk about areas where we disagree, and find a compromise,” she told reporters. “That is good for both, because we need to be fair.”

The German chancellor emphasized the need for trade deals that benefit both sides, but she seemed to be emphasizing that any negotiation with the United States will be with the entire 28-member European Union, not with individual member states.

“I think it’s only fair, and that’s the purpose of concluding agreements: Both sides win,” Merkel said. “And that’s the sort of spirit in which we ought to be guided in negotiating any agreement between the United States and the EU. I hope we will come back to the table and talk about the agreement between EU and the U.S. again.”

WATCH: Merkel Discusses US-EU Trade Agreement Talks

Veteran observers of U.S. trans-Atlantic relationships generally agreed that this first meeting of two very different leaders and experienced negotiators was a substantive start.

“At the beginning it was much more of, ‘It’s a good meeting, we are hopeful we can work together,’ ” said John Hughes, a former U.S. diplomat who is vice president of the Albright Stonebridge Group. “But, at the same time, it became evident in some of Merkel’s responses [that] she doesn’t see eye to eye with President Trump on everything, and she was going to be forceful in making her case on some of these issues, and not just bowing down to his demands.”

Merkel told reporters that she and Trump had more discussions ahead on economic topics, during a late lunch at the White House, but she said she wanted to “project” her view about how Germany achieved its dominant role in Europe — that economic advancement has always been accomplished together with security and peace.

“The successes of Germans have always been those where Germany’s gains are one side of the coin,” Merkel said, “and the other side of the coin has been European unity and European integration. That is something of which I am deeply convinced.”
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Europe and the United States should keep sanctions in place against Russia until there is progress in implementing the 2015 Minsk accords aimed at ending the violence in eastern Ukraine, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said.

Tensions are again running high between the Ukrainian government and pro-Russian separatists: Kyiv this week cut off cargo shipments from the breakaway regions until the separatists hand back control of businesses they have seized.

“It is important that Europe and the United States present a unified front and stick to the sanctions against Russia until there is progress in implementing the Minsk agreements,” Gabriel said in an interview with the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper, to be published on Saturday.

“So far the United States has supported this common understanding and I hope it stays that way,” he added.

Chancellor Angela Merkel held her first meeting on Friday with U.S. President Donald Trump, who said he appreciated the leadership of Germany and France in trying to find a peaceful solution in Ukraine.

Trump’s positive comments about Russian President Vladimir Putin during his campaign for the White House last year have made Ukrainian officials nervous that he might be inclined to relax the economic sanctions.

Merkel, who will travel to Moscow in May, said in Washington she was working for a “safe and secure solution for Ukraine, but the relationship with Russia has to be improved as well.”

More than 10,000 people have been killed in three years of conflict in eastern Ukraine. Merkel said there had not been the desired progress in implementing the Minsk accords, but Germany would continue to work to ensure they were implemented.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has stuck by his claim that the Obama administration wiretapped his phones in Trump Tower with the help of British security, despite a complaint by British authorities that such an assertion is “ridiculous.”

Trump spoke to reporters Friday at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Questioned by a reporter about the allegation, which Trump first made in a tweet on March 4, Trump answered by referencing a wiretapping scandal in which U.S. security officials were found to be listening in on Merkel’s private conversations.

“As far as wiretapping, I guess, by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps,” Trump said to Merkel.

Merkel did not answer and a few reporters in the room laughed nervously.

On Thursday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer cited a Fox News report to back up claims that the British spy agency, known as GCHQ, was involved in wiretapping Trump Tower.

Fox host Andrew Napolitano claimed that “three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President [Barack] Obama went outside the chain of command” to order the surveillance and that GCHQ was involved.

A spokesman for GCHQ denied the claims, saying, “Recent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct ‘wiretapping’ against the then-president-elect are nonsense.”

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday called Trump’s claims “ridiculous” and said it would be impossible for Britain to spy on a U.S. citizen because of an agreement signed between the two countries. The spokesman said Britain had received assurances from the White House that the claims would not be repeated.

The White House has produced no evidence of its claim, insisting that it is only repeating “public reports.”

Friday afternoon, a Fox News anchor read a statement on the air saying, “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now president of the United States was surveilled at any time, in any way, full stop.”

Also Friday, the Justice Department said it has complied with requests from congressional Intelligence and Judiciary committees to provide information on any surveillance from the 2016 election.

The two top senators on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Republican Richard Burr and Democrat Mark Warner, said Thursday: “Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016.”

Their statement followed one from House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who also dismissed the president’s explosive claim that Obama ordered the eavesdropping. “We’ve cleared that up, that we see no evidence of that,” Ryan said.

Obama has dismissed the allegation as “simply false.”

National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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The European Union’s enlargement commissioner urged Balkan leaders Thursday to stop stoking regional tensions and fully embrace their European future.

Johannes Hahn addressed the prime ministers of Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia, who met in Sarajevo as part of preparations for a summit of some EU and western Balkan nations to be held in Trieste, Italy on July 12.

Hahn said the EU understood it was in its “hard-headed self-interest” to promote the troubled region’s future within the bloc when U.S policy for that part of the world is unclear and there are “unprecedented levels of involvement from further east” — an apparent reference to Russian meddling in the Balkans.

“We now have one of those windows of opportunity where either the region as a whole picks up momentum and we generate a genuinely positive narrative, or we end up in a really awkward spot, with a stream of bad news slamming the window firmly shut,” he said.

Many issues hamper EU membership

The Balkan countries are at different stages of being integrated into the bloc. Domestic politics and sluggish national economies have long hampered the EU integration of a region still recovering from the brutal wars of the 1990s.

Between an unresolved political crisis in Macedonia, a failed coup attempt in Montenegro, and growing discord between Bosnia’s ethnic leaders, the western Balkans now appear to be at their most tense in at least a decade.

Relations between Kosovo and Serbia have also grown increasingly hostile, while an opposition boycott of Parliament in Albania is hampering that country’s ability to integrate with the EU.

Future is in Europe

Hahn acknowledged that the Sarajevo meeting was taking place at a point when several countries are undergoing “severe domestic political crises, sometimes heading toward serious ethnic tensions.”

However, he said the EU has “unequivocally confirmed” that the western Balkan countries have a future in Europe.

“I don’t think you can afford to squander this positive climate through domestic confrontations and blaming neighbors,” Hahn said. “This is playing with fire.”
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Ten people were injured in an eruption on Mount Etna on Thursday when magma flowing into snow caused a violent explosion that sent stones and rocks flying into the air, emergency services said.

Among those hurt near the summit of Etna on the island of Sicily were members of a television crew filming for the BBC.

“Running down a mountain pelted by rocks, dodging burning boulders and boiling steam — not an experience I ever ever want to repeat,” the BBC’s science correspondent Rebecca Morelle wrote on Twitter.

“BBC team all okay — some cuts/ bruises and burns. Very shaken though – it was extremely scary,” she said.

Italian officials said six people had to be taken to hospital, but none were in a serious condition.

Etna is Europe’s most active volcano. After a quiet couple of years it burst into action in February with repeated explosive eruptions that sent orange plumes of lava into the air.

Thursday’s explosion was the result of a so-called phreatomagmatic eruption, caused by magma hitting water — in this case snow.
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Tucked away in Spain’s Pyrenees mountains, patients at psychiatric facility Benito Menni stretch out across floor mats and stroke greyhound puppies Atila and Argi.

Puppy love is part of the treatment for conditions such as schizophrenia.

The facility, based in a town near the border with France, uses the dogs to help patients with intellectual disabilities and mental health conditions develop social skills and a sense of autonomy.

Alongside misty views of green rolling mountains, petting sessions with the eight-month-old puppies have a calming effect serving as an emotional outlet for patients who struggle to connect with others.

Playing with those who are more active and sitting still with those who find moving a daily challenge, the dogs tailor their behavior according to the needs of their patient.

For a Reuters photo essay, click http://reut.rs/2ntcZeA

Unlike other centres, Atila and Argi live on the grounds and are cared for by patients. “They are in charge of the dogs 24 hours a day,” said head nurse of Benito Menni Uxua Lazkanotegi.

“The dogs are now part of the center.”

In an effort to promote good habits like self-control and personal hygiene, patients groom and feed their furry companions taking them for daily walks to the nearby village where the dogs are icebreakers facilitating conversation with the locals.

Center residents who struggle to express themselves because of a range of cognitive and behavioral disabilities referred to their feelings for the dogs using words like “calmness,” “companionship” and “affection.”

The dogs also work with those unable to feed or walk the animals, sitting with severe dementia patients in an effort to combat isolation and depression by stimulating their senses of touch.
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Women made scarcely any progress increasing their presence in the top echelons of government last year, leaving gender equality in legislatures and ministries a distant goal, data showed on Wednesday.

A map ranking countries based on women in politics showed the number of women ministers and legislators barely rose, and the number of countries with a female head of state fell.

Progress getting women and men in equal numbers among the world’s political leaders is at a near standstill, said the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and U.N. Women, which compiled the map.

“The overall stagnation and specific reversals are warning bells of erosion of equality that we must heed and act on rapidly,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, executive director of U.N. Women.

Specifically, the number of women ministers nudged up to 732 from 730 in 2015, and their representation in parliaments rose less than a full percentage point to 23 percent. The number of countries with a female head of state or government fell to 17 from 19.

“These developments show that progress in gender equality remains slow in all structures of power and types of decision-making,” IPU Secretary-General Martin Chungong said in a statement.

“Power is still firmly in men’s hands,” he said. The Swiss-based IPU works to promote representative democracy.

Nordic countries suffered the largest setback globally, with a 6 percent drop in women ministers. Overall, however, women account for 44 percent of the top political executives.

In Africa, women hold one-fifth of the ministerial posts but, with the exception of the Congo and Zambia, saw a steady decline over the last two years.

Finland, which had the most women ministers in 2015, saw a sharp fall to 39 percent from 63 percent. Finland now ranks 14th, while Bulgaria, France, and Nicaragua share first place.

In those three top countries as well as in Sweden and Canada, the number of women in ministerial positions is slightly more than half.

Rwanda has the highest ratio of female legislators, at nearly two-thirds in its lower house, followed by Bolivia, Cuba and Iceland.

North, Central and South Americas made significant gains over the year, with women comprising a quarter of the legislatures.

In Arab states, the biggest improvement was in Tunisia, where the ratio of women in parliament rose to 23 percent from 11 percent.
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U.N. refugee agency special envoy Angelina Jolie made an impassioned plea Wednesday for internationalism in the face of wars driving people from their homes and a “rising tide of nationalism masquerading as patriotism.”

The Hollywood actress, speaking at the United Nations in Geneva, called for a renewed commitment to the “imperfect” world body and to diplomacy to settle conflicts.

“If governments and leaders are not keeping that flame of internationalism alive today, then we as citizens must,” Jolie said in the annual Sergio Vieira de Mello lecture honoring the veteran U.N. aid worker killed in a Baghdad bombing in 2003.

“We see a rising tide of nationalism, masquerading as patriotism, and the re-emergence of policies encouraging fear and hatred of others,” she warned.

Jolie did not refer directly to U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration is reviewing its funding of the United Nations and its participation in the U.N. Human Rights Council.

“A lot of the fear we observe today of refugees, of foreigners, is produced by ignorance, often fueling politicians as well,” she said in response to a question.

“We have to recognize the damage we do when we undermine the U.N. or use it selectively — or not at all — or when we rely on aid to do the job of diplomacy, or give the U.N. impossible tasks and then underfund it.”

Not a single humanitarian appeal to donor governments worldwide has received even half the amount needed, she said.

Operations in four countries where 20 million people are on the brink of death from starvation — Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria — are severely underfunded.

Jolie, who described herself as “a proud American” and “an internationalist,” has worked since 2001 for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), visiting uprooted civilians from Iraq to Cambodia and Kenya.
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A campaign to inform would-be migrants in Africa about the dangers of heading to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea aims to reach people in 15 African countries through social media, radio and television advertisements, migration officials said Wednesday.

The “Aware Migrants” campaign, which was launched last year by the Italian government and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), features video testimonies of migrants who made it to Europe but were abused, beaten or raped along the way.

The voyage from Libya across the Mediterranean to Italy — most cross the sea on flimsy boats run by smugglers — has become the main route to Europe for migrants from Africa after a European Union clampdown last year on sea crossings from Turkey.

Arrivals in Italy have risen

A record 181,000 migrants made the perilous journey last year, and arrivals in Italy this year so far have risen by two-thirds compared with the same period in 2016, IOM data show.

The campaign is now targeting potential migrants across West and Central Africa — which account for most arrivals in Italy — with posts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, and advertisements with local media, said IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo.

“The purpose of the campaign is not to tell migrants not to leave. That is a personal choice,” he said. “But we need to provide them with as much information as possible, and quickly.”

“Many migrants who arrive in Italy are not fully aware of the risks … their journeys were more dangerous and traumatic than they expected,” Di Giacomo told an online news  conference.

More than 4,500 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean in 2016, and nearly 500 people crossing from Libya to Italy have died at sea this year, almost a fivefold increase from this time last year, according to the IOM.

African migrants are also prey to abuse, beatings, imprisonment and rape while heading through the Sahara desert and lawless Libya.

Stories untold

Yet many migrants who make it to Italy do not tell their friends and families about the hardships they have endured. IOM officials hope their campaign will highlight the harsh reality.

In one video on the campaign’s website, Ismael, 23, talks about being imprisoned with his wife as migrants in Libya.

“They even forced my wife,” he said. “They slept with my wife. She was pregnant. They used wooden sticks to beat her. She is dead.”

In the latest of a slew of measures pushed by the European Union to stop migrants from reaching Europe, Italy launched a 200 million-euro ($216 million) fund last month to help African countries control their borders.
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The European Parliament is urging the European Commission to adopt measures that would make life better for more than 340 million rabbits raised for food every year in Europe.

The parliament voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to recommend outlawing battery cages for rabbits — tiny enclosures with wire-mesh floors no bigger than ordinary letter-size pieces of paper.

Animal welfare groups say rabbits are extremely sensitive animals who suffer terribly in such small spaces, with such problems as open, infected wounds, respiratory disease and even cannibalism as the frustrated animals turn against one another.

Humane regulations already exist for pigs, cattle and chickens raised for food, but not rabbits.

European Consumer Affairs Commissioner Vera Jourova said such standards for rabbits should not be an EU-wide concern but one for individual states.
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Kremlin officials and Russian lawmakers are denying published reports that Moscow has deployed a team of special forces and drones to a military base in Egypt near the Libyan border.

The denials came Tuesday, following multiple reports that Russian military activity had been spotted near the Mediterranean coastal town of Sidi Baranni, 100 kilometers from the Egyptian-Libyan frontier.

Those reports, quoting anonymous U.S. officials, say increased Russian involvement may be part of a push by Moscow to support renegade Libyan military commander Khalifa Haftar.

Haftar and his so-called Libyan National Army are aligned with a government in eastern Libya that refuses to support the internationally backed Government of National Unity operating from Tripoli.

Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying he had seen the news reports of the alleged deployment, but said: “I have not heard of them from any other sources.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said: “we do not possess any information of that kind.”

Additionally, international affairs lawmaker Vladimir Dzhabarov called the deployment reports “fake news which should not be paid attention to.”

The deputy head of the state Duma defense committee, Andrei Krasov, said the reports “must be a deliberate act of misinformation” aimed at raising international tensions.

Despite the Russian denials, Britain’s Guardian newspaper on Tuesday quoted Egyptian security sources as confirming the presence of a 22-member Russian security force on Egyptian soil. Those sources said Russia also used another Egyptian base early last month, but they declined to  divulge further information.

There has been no formal U.S. comment on the deployment reports.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday ordered his officials to seal an agreement which will, in effect, incorporate the armed forces of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region into the Russian military’s command structure.

Georgia condemned the move, which is likely to spark accusations from its Western allies that the Kremlin is absorbing the breakaway region into Russia by stealth, even though under international law it is part of Georgia’s sovereign territory.

Moscow has de facto controlled South Ossetia, a sliver of mainly mountainous land in the northeast of Georgia, for years.

But it has, on paper at least, treated South Ossetia as a separate state, not part of Russia.

According to the text of the draft agreement that Putin ordered his officials to conclude, the separatists will adopt new operating procedures for their armed forces which will be subject to approval by Moscow, and the forces’ structure and objectives will be determined in agreement with Russia.

The agreement also states that members of the South Ossetian armed forces can transfer to serve as Russian soldiers on a Russian military base in South Ossetia. The separatists will shrink their own armed forces by the number of servicemen employed at the Russian base.

On Tuesday, the Kremlin issued an order signed by Putin instructing the Russian defense and foreign ministries to work with the separatists to conclude and sign the agreement.

Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze said in a statement: “Any agreement between the Russian Federation and de-facto leadership (of South Ossetia) is illegitimate.”

“Such steps are not aimed at protecting peace and are impeding peaceful process, which is necessary for the conflict resolution,” he said.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in a war. In August 2008, Russia sent in troops, saying it was protecting civilians in South Ossetia from attack by Georgian forces.

Georgia, backed by the United States and European Union, said the Russian operation was a naked land grab.

After a brief war, Russia recognized South Ossetia as an independent state. Only a handful of other states recognize it as a state.

Russia’s critics say the war in South Ossetia was a dress rehearsal by Russia for its annexation in 2014 of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula, and its support for separatist fighters in the eastern Ukrainian Donbass region.
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Russian lender Sberbank said Monday it was deeply concerned by protests against its Ukrainian subsidiary, which included a nationalist group walling up the entrance to one of its branches in Kyiv with masonry and cement.

Periodic protests have been held against Kremlin-owned banks operating in Ukraine since bilateral ties broke down in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea and gave its support to the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Sberbank’s announcement last Tuesday that it would heed a call from President Vladimir Putin to recognize passports issued by separatists in eastern Ukraine has fueled greater discontent.

On Monday, a few dozen members of a new activist group called National Corp blocked off the entrance to Sberbank’s main branch in central Kyiv. The branch temporarily suspended operations and appealed to the police.

“Sberbank is highly concerned about the situation in Ukraine linked to the actions of representatives of nationalist groups,” the bank said in a statement. “Our subsidiary has already appealed to law enforcement bodies and we hope that all necessary steps will be swiftly taken to ensure the safety of our workers and clients and protect property.”

It said over the past week it had recorded over 26 acts of vandalism against Sberbank Ukraine’s branches and bank machines.

Last week, the central bank said it could recommend the introduction of sanctions on Sberbank’s subsidiary for its recognition of separatists’ identity documents.

Five Russian state-owned banks are present in Ukraine, including three in the top 20, and they hold a combined market share of 8.6 percent.

The central bank has been seeking to cut that following the souring of relations between the one-time allies.

It is not yet clear how the other Kremlin-owned banks operating in Ukraine are handling Putin’s order to recognize separatist documents.
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France’s troubled conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon has apologized for his party’s anti-Semitic tweet of rival Emmanuel Macron.

“The political battle is tough enough, but it must remain dignified,” Fillon said Sunday. “I will not tolerate my party publishing caricatures that use the codes of anti-Semitic propaganda.”

Fillon said he has always fought against such thinking and has asked Republican party officials to take action against whomever was responsible.

The image tweeted Friday shows Macron with a hooked nose, a top hot, and cutting a cigar with a red sickle.

France’s Vichy government which collaborated with the Nazis were notorious for using such cartoons during World War II.

Allegations of anti-Semitism is the latest of Fillon’s problems.

He was once favored to win the French presidency, but now trials Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.

His once thriving campaign has been damaged by a financial scandal in which he is accused of paying his wife huge sums of public money for a phony job as a parliamentary assistant.

Fillon has denied wrongdoing.

The French newspaper Journal du Dimanche also reports Fillon accepted a gift of two suits from an exclusive French clothing shop which far exceeds the legal limit of donations for presidential candidates.

The first round of the election is set for April 23, followed by a runoff for the top two finishers two weeks later.

 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned the Netherlands Sunday it would “pay a price” for refusing to allow Ankara’s foreign minister into the country and expelling another minister Saturday to keep them from holding rallies with Turkish immigrants.

Erdogan accused the Dutch government, a NATO ally, of “nazism and fascism,” saying only a repressive regime would block Ankara’s officials from traveling to the Netherlands.

Both of the Ankara officials were trying to rally Turkish immigrants with Turkish voting rights to support Erdogan’s bid to win a referendum next month to give him sweeping new powers.

The Dutch government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, facing a tough re-election contest on Wednesday against the anti-Islam party of Geert Wilders, barred Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from flying to Rotterdam. It then blocked Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya from entering the Turkish embassy in the port city before escorting her out of the country to Germany.

An angry Erdogan told a ceremony in Istanbul, “Hey Holland! If you are sacrificing Turkish-Dutch relations for the sake of the elections on Wednesday, you will pay a price.”

Retaliation threats

Earlier Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said in a statement that Turkey would retaliate against Amsterdam in the “harshest ways” and “respond in kind to this unacceptable behavior.”

Ankara barred the Dutch ambassador from returning to Turkey, with Cavusoglu saying, “We have other steps in mind. We’ve already begun planning them. We will certainly take those steps and more.” Turkish officials sealed off the Dutch embassy in Ankara.

Dutch leader Rutte called Erdogan’s Nazi claim “a crazy remark.”

“Turkey is a proud nation; the Netherlands is a proud nation,” Rutte said. “We can never do business under those sorts of threats and blackmail.”

But Rutte said his government “will keep working to de-escalate where we can. If the Turks choose to escalate, we will have to react, but we will do everything we can to de-escalate.”

Protesters arrested

Police in Rotterdam arrested 12 protesters outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam after Dutch-Turkish demonstrators early Sunday pelted police on horseback with rocks and bottles. Police responded with batons and a water cannon. The clash erupted after protesters learned that Dutch police were escorting Kaya to Germany.

Before clashes broke out, about 2,000 protesters had gathered outside the consulate in Rotterdam, the country’s second largest city, to show their support for Erdogan’s government.

Cavusoglu was barred from landing in the Netherlands because of growing opposition to Turkey’s referendum campaigning throughout the European Union.

After Cavusoglu was turned away, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said Kaya had entered the Netherlands from Germany, even though events at which she intended to speak already had been canceled.

Hours later, after arriving back in Istanbul, where she was welcomed by a flag-waving crowd Sunday, Kaya told reporters, “We were subjected to rude and tough treatment … Treating a female minister this way is very ugly.”

Protesters have taken down the Dutch flag at the Istanbul consulate and replaced it with a Turkish flag.

After being denied entry to the Netherlands, Cavusoglu spoke to more than a hundred Turkish emigres in the northern French city of Metz. French officials had said Saturday they had no plans to prevent his appearance.

Many European Union member states object to visits by Turkish ministers calling for Turkish nationals to vote for the upcoming referendum to change Turkey’s constitution, because of domestic tensions the campaigning has caused. Ankara wants to drum up support among millions of Turks who live and work in Europe to give Erdogan more powers, which could see him remain in office until 2029.

Dutch far-right leader Wilders waded into the debate this week ahead of a planned rally in The Hague, where the Dutch parliament is located.

“We are in Holland here, not in Turkey, and a Turkish minister has no room here to lobby for somebody like Erdogan, who is a mere dictator,” Wilders said.

On Saturday, Wilders said in a tweet: “To all Turks in the Netherlands who agree with Erdogan: Go to Turkey and NEVER come back!!”

 
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Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as Carlos the Jackal, is due to go on trial Monday for a deadly attack in a Paris’ shopping mall decades ago, the oldest one blamed on the former public enemy of France and probably the last one to come to court.

The Venezuelan-born Ramirez Sanchez, one of the most notorious political terrorists of the 1970s and `80s, is serving a life sentence in France for a series of murders and attacks he perpetrated or organized in the country on behalf of the Palestinian cause or communist revolution.

He first was convicted by a French court 20 years ago, and again in 2011 and 2013. If convicted on first-degree murder charges in the latest trial, he could get a third life sentence.

Ramirez Sanchez, 67, is scheduled to appear in a Paris court for allegedly throwing a hand grenade from a mezzanine restaurant onto a shopping arcade in the French capital’s Latin Quarter in September 1974. Two people were killed and dozens injured.

At the time of the attack, Ramirez Sanchez had not yet been dubbed “Carlos the Jackal” or become one of the world’s most wanted fugitives. He was 24 years old and already had joined the organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

When police arrived, they found a devastated mall with all the windows shattered, multiple bloodstains and a hole in the marble slab of the ground floor where the grenade fell. The two men who died were hit by metal chips that perforated vital organs and caused large internal bleeding, according to court documents.

Carlos has pleaded innocent and denied involvement in the case. His long-time lawyer and fiancé, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, claims that none of the witnesses from the trendy Drugstore Publicis restaurant had described a man resembling her client, and that the whole case was trumped-up.

Yet an Arab language news magazine in France, Al-Watan Al-Arabi, published a long interview with a man it identified as Ramirez Sanchez five years after the attack. He allegedly claimed he had personally thrown the grenade into the restaurant, described the full details of the operation and explained why it was carried out. Carlos later disputed he had given the interview.

In the 1979 article, the man said to be Carlos said he attacked the Drugstore Publicis to pressure for the release of a Japanese activist arrested in France two months earlier. The attack, he said, came as a backup operation for a hostage-taking that was then ongoing at the French Embassy in the Netherlands.

It was in the name of the Palestinian cause that he subsequently became the military chief of the PFLP in Europe, claiming the “operational and political responsibility” for all the operations of the group on the continent and also for “all the wounded and all the dead,” according to court documents.

“I am a hero of the Palestinian resistance, and I am the only survivor of [the group’s] professional executives in Europe because I used to shoot first,” he told investigators.

Carlos was arrested in Sudan by the French intelligence services in 1994, 20 years after the first attack blamed on him in France.

The case took so long to go to trial because it was first dismissed for lack of evidence before being reopened when Carlos was arrested and imprisoned in France. His lawyers introduced challenges at every stage of the proceedings.

The case will be heard by a special court made up of professional judges and with no jurors, as is the custom with terrorism trials in France.

During one interrogation, Carlos allegedly told investigators that “in 1974 it was obviously an attack. A grenade was thrown.” He added: “I don’t think the person who did this wanted to hurt the poor people who were present.”

 
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